Hi,
I passed by the building of Shoval Rider Police (in Arabic Bir-Zubala)many time when I was driving to military reserve duty in Tze’elim, Through the western Negev.
I am always in hurry when I am driving to reserve duty (altough no one else is, and we do nothing in the first half day), and say I will stop on the next time. Today I finally had time as I was driving down to a co-worker wedding nearby.
The building was built as police station of the British mandate at the 1920s’ as one level structure from local stone. It is 211 m above sea level and located on a hill, north of Rahat and south of Kibbutz Shoval. The building shape is if a rectangular with two round posts attached to it and give 360 round fire cover(what gave those type of Mandate time police station the nickname Mickey mouse).
The station was one of 4 starions of the Desert Police that were built on the 1920s’ and 6 more that were built on the 1920s’ and one more on the end of 1930s’. The station were on day of ride one from another. This station was one of the smaller and had only 25 riders. Like in the rest of the stations they were all Arabs or Bedouins of the tribes around the station and had to being their horse or camel with them to service. Each station was under the command of a British Sergeant.
The desert police was part of the British Mandate police which had to govern the large areas of the Desert Negev. The police was founded after Major General Fredrick Peake, who founded Sudan Camel Corps and was the command of Imperial Camel Corps, had a short duty in Israel with his corps. Radio communication was hard on those large areas, and the idea was to set police station which will patrol and rule on areas around and between it. The patrols were on camels as it was the animal who best fit for transportation on the desert or on horses.
After Israel Independence, the place served as elementary Bedouin school, local police station and local Bedouin court. The building is now abandon and was set as preservation building and taken care by kids of the nearby schools.
Take Care
Gad
General view of the police station at dusk (you can see the two round posts at the corners)
Looking from North-West
Looking from South-East
Embrasure at the round wall
And a gutter above it
The Western wall of the station (the windows were closed to prevent vandalism)
The entrance door at the Eastern wall
The main corridor with doors along it
One of the rooms
The entrance to the round post
The round post from within and the embrasures
What might be the stables on the north of the building
An open to the roof
The police station, the gate and the
Aerial view of the police station
An old pic of the police station (Source: Israel Police legacy)
The desert policeman on camels (Source: Israel Police legacy)
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